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How Far Can You Go on a Slice?

From the Commuter Central archives, we bring you a post we first published in July, 2008. It fits perfectly with our theme of the month, transportation and the environment.

After a weekend of pizza, burrritos and artichokes, the SmartTrips Business team began to wonder just how far the fuel we stuffed our faces with would take us.

With the help of Marcia D. Lowe's The Bicycle: Vehicle for a Small Planet, we were able to determine how much distance we could travel on 350 calories - equivalent to a slice of cheese pizza or a bowl of rice.

If you are on foot, that slice will take you 3.5 miles. That's longer than more than 40% of the trips made in the U.S.

If you ride a bike, those 350 calories will fuel you for a 10 mile trip. That's practically riding from Vancouver to Portland.

And what if we converted that slice of pizza to the energy equivalent in gasoline? It would take you a measley 100 feet.